Ufm: secretary re-launches action plan, 2012 new start

Governments inactive, small steps now, Schulz

(ANSAmed) - BRUSSELS, JUNE 8 - A new secretary, a new action
plan and a new start of the Union for the Mediterranean in 2012.

The governments are only showing their political will on paper,
but the union's secretariat, parliamentary assembly, the
European Commission and the European Investment Bank seem to be
determined to get results. The new start is based on the action
plan and therefore the projects, the only thing that binds the
43 countries together and has a concrete value. This picture
emerged from today's meeting of the Union for the Mediterranean
Bureau in Brussels, organised by the European Parliament.

''We have a feeling that we are making a new start this
year,'' said UFM secretary general Fatallah Sijilmassi, whose
main focus is ''to take the projects labelled 'UFM' and make
sure they are financed and carried out. We are committed to this
goal, and the projects in which most progress has been made are
the Maghreb motorway between Casablanca and Tunis, the
desalination facility in Gaza and the Logismeta logistic
platform, aimed at making the transport of goods in the
Mediterranean as competitive as possible for business,''
Sijilmassi continued.
The Union for the Mediterranean political vacuum does not
necessarily mean the organisation is destined to fail. But the
risk is there: according to European Parliament president Martin
Schulz, ''the drive to renationalisation'' is getting stronger
again, and at the same time ''nowhere in the world is
integration as weak as in the south of the Mediterranean area.''
Schulz is currently head of the UFM Parliamentary Assembly. In
his eyes, the governments of the 43 Union for the Mediterranean
countries ''are doing nothing, therefore someone should take
action: we do what we can, taking small steps, are resources are
limited. We can focus on some 'beacon projects' and that may not
be much, but it's better than nothing.''
Currently no high-level summits have been scheduled, only a
forum to promote the dialogue between citizens of both
Mediterranean shores. ''it will be a large dialogue forum,''
explained the chairman of the UFM Assembly, ''because what
counts most is to let the two shores get to know each other
better.'' This ''large conference'' will be held in Marseille in
the second half of 2012 or the first half of 2013, and will be
organised by the Anna Lindh Foundation. (ANSAmed).